I’m not that into you

When you were in middle school, did you ever have an admirer who wasn’t really your type?  Or were you that admirer in the first place? (You can guess which side I fell on!)

I read this week about 12 major trends in loyalty programs, from Brendan Read of TMC.net, in his article, “12 Key Loyalty Marketing Trends for 2010.”  One of his major trends is “Engagement is the Goal,” and he goes on to state, “From merchants and banks, to hotels and restaurants, to health care providers and insurance agencies – all but airlines – marketers are embracing engagement. These organizations know that engagement is the process that creates loyal customers, clients and employees.”

Boy, does that sound like a threat to me.

You see, I am just not up to engaging in meaningful relationships with everyone I do business with.  Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge, defines engagement as “An engagement is a promise to marriage, and also the period of time between proposal and marriage.”  I am just not ready to promise a lifelong commitment to my grocer, my tennis club, my lunch place, my drycleaner, my electronics store, my bookseller, and so on.  It simply gets exhausting.

Maybe I am just a bit tired from lots of holiday traveling, but I am not willing to bare my soul and share my needs and dreams with so many different people.  I am not sure of their intentions, their ethics, and also, I just don’t care enough about their brands.  And the thought that they will all be pursuing me, in order to get a bigger share of my wallet, feels phony and transactional.

So who will I have a relationship with?

1. I will have a relationship with companies I already have relationships with. This may sound obvious, but if a company suddenly professes a great interest in me, I am likely to ask why?  Just like when the beautiful girl in middle school looked at me, I first thought I had something caught in my teeth!  Then I wondered why?
2. I will build a relationship with companies who treat me humanely across all channels. I do not want to feel special to the call center, only to feel like dirt when I send an email which never gets answered.
3. Finally, I will build relationships with companies that tie into my passions. Tennis, technology, skiing, social media, science fiction — all of these are what gets me excited to receive new product information and offers.

The key to superior Best Customer experience will be to determine which customers fall into those categories and then creating an exciting dialogue and connection.

Who do you connect with?  Do you have similar fears about being deluged by strangers?

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Tagged as: best customer experience, best customers, bestcustomer, customer centric, Customer Centricity, Customer experience, Customer Management, customer relationships, customercentric, Database marketing, Loyalty marketing, Relationships, Retail, Retail experience, retention